Alan Shearer's emergency management shift at Newcastle United has caused two unusual problems for Match of the Day (BBC1), resulting in some tactical rethinking.

Problem one was the oddity of a pundit becoming a protagonist. Short of Kirsty Young announcing on Crimewatch UK "that Clapham bank blag - I did it!", it's hard to imagine a TV transition as sudden as Shearer's jump from studio sofa to dug-out bench.

And, in truth, the move was a little embarassing for MOTD, where Gary Lineker, Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson have always loyally body-swerved the question of Shearer's possible management ambitions, meaning that the most startling football story of the season was broken by other shows.

The impact was acknowledged by a change of format: usually, managers give their after-match views to the commentator at the ground, but Shearer, holding a huge microphone like a barbed-wire bouquet, popped up on a screen in the studio to be quizzed by Lineker.

During the sofa round, Hansen and Lawrenson paid tribute to their absent friend by adopting his punditry technique: furrowing their brows while saying nothing that could prevent them playing golf with the subject of discussion.

But Shearer's away games, it was soon clear, have given MOTD another problem. In a premiership season dominated by the run-in between Manchester United and Liverpool, Shearer's presence in the comment squad prevented the show from having to field studio duos in which both pundits were Liverpool legends. Now Hansen and Lawrenson sat cheerfully combining in a one-two about how you could smell the fear from Man Utd.

Lineker responded with one of his more grown-up jokes about the beauty of having "neutrals" in the studio but, though cosiness is the programme's biggest fault, you sensed that MOTD might be willing Shearer to fail as a manager because his unavailability had wrecked their formation.